Rights Groups Attack German Plan on Refugees

Human rights groups are protesting plans by the German Government to reject people seeking asylum from countries where it says there is no political persecution. The groups say that contrary to the Government's assurances, political repression is practiced in several of these countries.

The debate reflects the difficulty facing many Western countries, including the United States, that are seeking to limit immigration from poor and unstable countries.

Under a recent compromise among major political parties, Germany will soon adopt a new law tightening restrictions on foreigners who seek political asylum here. The compromise agreement requires the Government to draw up a list of countries where there is no repression. Asylum seekers from these countries would be sent home.

Although the list has not been officially published, Government officials have discussed it with members of Parliament. Amnesty International has protested, saying political torture and murder are officially tolerated in at least 10 countries believed to be on the list. It named Turkey, Liberia, Zaire, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, India, Pakistan, Romania and Bulgaria.

The report said that Liberia was in a state of "terror and anarchy," that hundreds of cases of torture were reported in Turkey last year and that dozens of people had recently died under torture in Pakistan and been shot by troops in Zaire. It also said Gypsies in Romania and Bulgaria were victims of continuing "pogrom-style assaults" in which they were beaten, robbed and forced from their homes.

"Even putting aside the matter of these particular countries, the very idea of drawing up a list like this is unfair," said an Amnesty International spokeswoman, Susanne Ertl. "It ignores the fact that there can be individual cases of abuse even in relatively free countries."

Germany receives far more asylum seekers than any other country in Europe, nearly 450,000 in 1992. Among them were more than 100,000 Romanians and 30,000 Bulgarians, most of them Gypsies, along with 28,000 Turks.

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The presence of these refugees has fed a wave of rightist violence and set off intense political debate.

The list of "persecution-free countries" must be approved by Parliament, and several members are planning to challenge the Government over what they say is its intention to include countries with questionable human rights credentials.

"We need to discuss whether these countries are safe or not," said one legislator, Burkhard Hirsch. "This is naturally a very delicate matter for the Government, because some countries may be exercising diplomatic pressure to be sure they appear on the list of nice countries." Search for Consensus

Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters, who is principally responsible for drawing up the list, said after meeting with members of Parliament last week that he was striving for "a high level of consensus" over details of the new asylum law.

Although the German authorities last year reached an agreement with Romania to send back many Romanian asylum seekers, very few have been deported. Officials are counting on the new law to reduce the flow of new asylum seekers drastically.

Parliament is expected to consider the proposed law this month. It would allow the immediate deportation not only of asylum seekers from countries considered safe, but also those who passed through a safe country on their way to Germany.

"What this effectively means is that no refugee can come to Germany by land," a human rights group, the Society for Threatened Peoples, said in a recent statement. "Only those who arrive by air can apply for asylum, but they would need visas to get here, and as a rule German embassies do not issue visas to people seeking political asylum. Is the only remaining possibility a flight by private plane and then a parachute jump?"

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A version of this article appears in print on February 7, 1993, on Page 1001011 of the National edition with the headline: Rights Groups Attack German Plan on Refugees. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe